App Cards & Visual Directions

For any lesson, visual directions help keep students on task and remind them of what they need to be doing. Visual directions can also be a huge sanity-saver because rather than answer the same question5 times… you can instead point your students toward those really nice pictures on your board. 🙂

When it comes to using technology, I’ve found visual directions to be even more essential. Each app has its own set of buttons and icons and they can all be pretty confusing at first. My kindergartners have no clue that the microphone icon resembles an actual old-school microphone, and to them, what the heck is a plus sign? I also found myself shouting “Just tap the mountains!” when directing them to find a saved image in their camera roll.

Anyone else felt this frustration???

The Solution

Thank goodness for these super helpful Ipad Icon Cards from Technically It’s Kinder {If you don’t follow her blog or social media accounts, you definitely need to check her out!}. I came across them on her Instagram and fell in love. These prinatble cards have been a huge help to teach students about the various icons and the function of each. They’re also great to display on a white board or pocket chart to show the steps of a tech activity.

Underneath the app card, I sequenced the buttons students would need to press to successfully create their PicCollage and post in Seesaw learning.

While these cards were definitely great when it came to following directions, I realized I also need a visual to help my students find the right app to start off. So, I created the App Cards to help keep my students on track.

A few ways to use App Cards:

Paired with the iPad icon cards as visual reminders during independent work or center rotations

On their own, showing students their app options for a project (ex. When creating a book trailer, students might be able to choose from Seesaw, ChatterPix Kids, or Clips).

For app smashing- by the time my students finished their work in one app, they would forget which one to go to next! App cards eliminated this confusion.

Showing students which apps to use, in order. (ex. In centers, my students first complete their Nearpod lesson, and then can choose between Starfall or MyOn so I would display all 3 cards in the pocket chart.

Nearpod self-paced lesson codes are a great reminder for students during center rotations